Question for those w/ a sub/sat system

[Finch Platte]

Last night, on a whim, I bought a powered subwoofer to replace the smaller, unpowered subwoofer in my Boston system.

I hooked it up, and it shakes the room, but it sounds as though there's something missing, like a few frequencies? Lots of bass, plenty of mids & highs, but it sounds like some lower mids might be missing. Is this just something I need to get used to (wow, bass!), do you think, or are my ears trying to tell me something? (Your system sounds like crap, now!)

There are adjustments on the sub for bass volume and a knob for cut off freq., but I'm bouncing up & down off the couch twisting the knob every 20 seconds.

Any help, suggestions, ideas, beer would be appreciated. I'm beginning to be sorry I moved my living room around now. The system sounded fine before, and now every place in the room sounds different. The sweet spot on the couch sounds great sometimes, but when I get up and walk around, the bass gets overwhelming. Help!

fp

[Dusty Chalk]

Alright, first of all, turn the level down. You need to get the balance right, and it sounds like you don't. I had this sensation like the bass was coming from another room, and it was because of two things -- I had a whole...erm...hole in the frequencies between the sub and the bookshelf speakers, plus I had the level too high. If you have (or can create) a CD with a frequency sweep, it'll help (perhaps Troy can generate one? Probably complete overkill with Garageband, but who knows...?). Turn the crossover down until you hear the bass fade out, and then fade back in. This means that your crossover is now set too low, but don't turn it up yet. Get the levels right, so that they sound like they're about the same at their peaks. Then turn your crossover up until the gap is gone.

That's for starters. Now, listen to some music with which you are familiar, and adjust to taste.

A good sub actually makes you want to turn the bass down, surprisingly enough. I thought when I got my first set of full-frequency speakers (which had built-in powered subs), that I'd want to turn it up. Turning it up is just a compensation for the missing lowest frequencies. Once you have them, you don't need to turn them up any more.

[Finch Platte]

[QUOTE=Dusty Chalk]Turn the crossover down until you hear the bass fade out, and then fade back in. This means that your crossover is now set too low, but don't turn it up yet. Get the levels right, so that they sound like they're about the same at their peaks. Then turn your crossover up until the gap is gone.
QUOTE]

Whatchoo mean? Are you talking about the volume knob, or the cut off freq knob, or...?

I can appreciate turning the vol down- last night I was turning up everything in sight

Thanks, Dusty,

ep

[Dusty Chalk]

Crossover == Cutoff Freq

So, to reiterate:

- turn cutoff freq down until you hear the gap
- match the levels with the volume knob
- turn the cutoff freq up until the gap disappears